The Greater Darkness
The Great Darkness personifies the primordial void from the dawn of creation, the original state of chaos into which the Source brought order at the beginning of time. It/he is the joined oldest of the Primordial Ones, the twin of the Source, although he has no adequate name in most languages, and its nature is poorly understood. To the Maltusians, the Greater Darkness was known as Tzodor, the Destroyer.
While entropy and finality exist, they are not directed by the Darkness, which, for most of its existence, appeared to lack a true consciousness. Only the influence of countless mortal minds and the evil that they hold threatens to overwhelm the Darkness. If it were ever to awaken truly, all of creation would be threatened.
The Great Darkness first appeared in Alan Moores’s Swamp Thing #49 as a mystical threat facing the DC Universe’s magicians. At the same time, the Anti-Monitor battled the superheroes in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The dormant nothingness from before existence only desired a return to that blank slate. Its domain, the Shadowlands, has been a power source for several heroes and villains.
Nature
This being is not a destroyer god in the traditional sense but rather the living embodiment of the very essence of entropy and finality itself. It personifies space, the void, and the decay of order into chaos (but not chaos itself) as an agent of the decay, entropy, and ultimate heat death of all things. Its dualistic counterpart, the Source, then personifies time and the creation of order from chaos (not but order itself) as an agent of creation and the first action.
The Darkness does not think or plan in ways comprehensible to mortal minds. Instead, its consciousness is a vast, interconnected web of inevitabilities. Every possible end exists simultaneously within its shadowy form, waiting to be manifested. Those rare beings who have glimpsed the Greater Darkness describe it as both terrifying and oddly comforting. Its darkness is said to contain all silence, all rest, and all conclusions. To gaze upon it is to risk being overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of finality.
The Greater Darkness is neither good nor evil in its original state. It simply is. It represents the pure potential of entropy, the silence that follows the last echo of existence across the multiverse. Some say that all mortal beings carry a tiny fragment of the Greater Darkness within them, a speck of that primordial darkness that grants them a power of ending and the gift of mortality.
The mystery of the Great Darkness continues to haunt philosophers, mystics, and seekers of truth across countless realities, reminding them of the vast, awe-inspiring nature of finality itself. Its avatars, such as the Shadow Creature, may appear as harbingers of destruction, but they are merely expressions of an essential cosmic force – the necessary counterbalance to creation.
History
During the First World, the First Age of the Universe, which occurred shortly after the Big Bang, primordial ripples in the Platonic Field — self-emerging thoughts and ideas — could, if they were of sufficient amplitude or underwent superposition with other similar fluctuations, become self-sustaining. The new autonomous thought forms represented the first life in the Universe, titanic intelligences which literally thought themselves into existence.
The first of these beings to emerge were the twin entities known as the Source and Greater Darkness. However, where the Source first pulses of awareness sent ripples through the primordial void, transforming chaos into order, the Darkness slumbered, seemingly inert. However, the Source’s pulses created an automatic reaction from otherwise inert Darkness, pulses of entropy that balanced the Source’s creations. In some descriptions, the Darkness’s cosmic anti-heartbeat continues to this day, each pulse purging stagnant timelines and extinguishing races that have had their day.
Timeline for The Greater Darkness
-
The First World The Source and Greater Darkness awaken
Fluctuations in the platonic field form self-perpetuating thoughts, the first primordial ones. The Source (personifying time and order) and the Greater Darkness (personifying space and chaos) think themselves into existence.
-
The First World The Oracle awakens
The first Dominion, the eldest child of the Triarch, a primordial one called the Oracle, awakens. As the Monitor watches, so it is the duty of the Oracle to record all that is.
-
The First World The Ouroboros awakens
Almost unnoticed, the Ouroboros steps into existence. With little to do, she bides her time by touring the newly formed Universe and keeping her brother the Oracle company.
-
The First World The Oneiromancer awakens
The Void, the Greater Darkness, falls back into slumber, becoming the first being to sleep and dream. The act of the first dream calls forth the third Dominion, a primordial one called the Oneiromancer, whose duty it is to safeguard dreams and imagination (the things which are not).
-
The Celestials Birth of the Light Born and the Nyctari
Alone, Olgrun moulds the world Urgrund into his wondrous throne world. He then calls forth two races from the nothingness of the void. To preserve the cosmic balance, the Light Born (or the Celestials), who channelled the power of the Source, and the Night Born (or the Nyctari), who channelled the power of the Greater Darkness, are born in equal measure.
-
The Celestials Twilight of the Old Gods, end of the Second Age
After a billion years of ceaseless warfare, the Light Born dimension of Urgrund is utterly laid waste.”The brave died with the cunning! The noble perished, locked in battle with unleashed evil. […] The final moment came with the fatal release of indescribable power–which tore the home of the Old Gods asunder[…] and filled the Universe with the blinding death-flash of its destruction!” (Jack Kirby New Gods #1). The final god weapon that destroyed Urgrund is unknown, but their entire dimension was left an inferno of featureless seething psionic potential. The end of the Second World. With the fall of Urgrund, the Source and Greater Darkness withdraw from direct communion with their servants. Henceforth, they will have to rely on signs and portents. The Greater Darkness slips deeper into its slumber.
| The Greater Darkness | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical Data | |
| Species/Race | Primordial One |
| Gender | N/A |
| Born | 1e-33s ABB The Primordial Universe |
| Family | |
| Children | The Oracle The Ouroboros The Oneiromancer |
| Father | N/A |
| Mother | N/A |
| Siblings | The Source The Monitor |
Leave a Reply